Woodscrews

Part thread screws tend to feature on longer sizes and are very effective at pulling two materials close together, particularly when used in natural timbers. Fully threaded screws are often preferred for use in board materials. As is a consideration with many threaded fasteners the style of head has to be decided, this is based on the application and appearance required. By far, countersunk head woodscrews are the most popular, leaving a flat finish in line with the wood or pre-countersunk fitting.

A countersunk woodscrew is always measured from the top of the screw head to the tip of the point. When attaching metal plates and brackets to timber or masonry – in conjunction with a nylon or plastic plug, a pan or round head screw is the neatest and best option as the flat underside of the screw head pulls the bracket tight against the substrate to which it is to be fixed.

The drive of the screw is the type of tool recess the screw has in order for the screw to be driven in. The first drives were of the slotted type as they are very easy to manufacture. If you think back a couple of hundred years, cutting a groove in the top of the fastener allowed a blade to be inserted and turned, driving the screw in. Surprisingly this type of drive is still used and often features on high end furniture and joinery as an illustration of being traditional and hand made. If the screw head is to be painted a slotted head is also the easiest drive type to remove the paint from in order to remove and reinstall.

The most common drive type in the UK currently is the Pozidrive system. This features 8 location points for the screwdriver tip or bit to easily locate into. The Pozidrive system is often confused with the Phillips head which is sometimes referred to as a cross slot. Henry F Phillips designed this screw head to ensure easier location of the driver bit as it’s self centering design allows.

The Phillips bit has 4 location points and still features on drywall screws, window fasteners and some self drilling screws. If you’re about to board an aeroplane take a look at the screws on the fuselage, they will be of the Phillips design. It’s worth noting that a Phillips screwdriver bit can be used to install Pozidrive screws but a Pozidrive bit cannot be used to install Phillips style fasteners.

There are many other drive types on the market but Torx and Square drive are the prominent few, offering a very positive fit especially when used in automated driving systems. Woodscrews can find themselves used in many applications and their exposure to different environments necessitates that different coatings and raw materials will need to be used in their manufacture.

In some cases a coating may simply be used to make the screw more attractive by blending into the fitting as the case would be in using a Bright Zinc Plated screw in a BZP hinge. Other coatings offer different levels of corrosion resistance ranging from a bright zinc plating for basic rust resistance to organic coatings which offer high levels of corrosion resistance when used externally or in corrosive substrates such as cement boards. If a coating is deemed insufficient in protecting a woodscrew from corrosion the material the screw itself is manufactured from, has to change. The most obvious changes take the core material from carbon steel to various grades of stainless steel which dramatically improves the resistance of the screw to corrosion.

In specialist applications – such as fastenings which could be exposed to chlorine from a swimming pool environment very specialist materials are used. Other considerations in the manufacture of woodscrews include specialist lubricants which reduce the torque required to drive the screw into wood and modern board materials. These lubricants add to the cost of manufacture but can dramatically affect how many screws are driven in per battery charge, reduce the likelihood of snapping, which can be a very costly episode if used in high end materials and also reduce bit slippage, which not only makes the appearance of the driven in woodscrew scruffy but also encourages corrosion as the slipping action removes the protective coating within the drive recess. As you can see, a woodscrew isn’t just a woodscrew!

Protrade sell millions of woodscrews every year and we have designed our MX range to meet the requirements of professional users. We have done away with gimmicks that add cost but offer no usable value and concentrated on the critical aspects of what a woodscrew must deliver.

The Pozi recess on an MX woodscrew is deep and wide enough to grip without being too pinched to prevent release of the screwdriver bit when the installation has finished. Our MX woodscrews drive in fast enough to improve installation times without compromising the pull out and you will even see different thread pitches dependent on the length of the screw to optimise anchoring strength in varying substrate thicknesses.

MX does not squeal when being driven in because of a high-performance lubricant and the drive-in torque required is minimal which prevents snapping, even on long, narrow-gauge sizes. Finish the overall design with a thread that starts at the very tip of the screw for instant pick up you have a high performance and reliable woodscrew that is ideal for any joinery or construction trade. The MX woodscrew also comes in a very robust and secure cardboard box which doesn’t collapse or deform when stacked on a shelf or thrown in the back of a van, it’s also recyclable.